Food Waste, Food Insecurity, and the Globalization of Food Banks

by Daniel N. Warshawsky

Food banks—warehouses that collect and systematize surplus food—have expanded into one of the largest mechanisms to redistribute food waste. From their origins in North America in the 1960s, food banks provide food to communities in approximately one hundred countries on six continents. This book analyzes the development of food banks across the world and the limits of food charity as a means to reduce food insecurity and food waste.

Based on fifteen years of in-depth fieldwork on four continents, Daniel Warshawsky illustrates how and why food banks proliferate across the globe even though their impacts may be limited. He suggests that we need to reformulate the role of food banks. The mission of food banks needs to be more realistic, as food surpluses cannot reduce food insecurity on a significant scale. Food banks need to regain their institutional independence from the state and corporations, and incorporate the knowledge and experiences of the food insecure in the daily operations of the food system. These collective changes can contribute to a future where food banks play a smaller but more targeted role in food systems.

• Publish Date: 2 January 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: University of Iowa Press
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 225
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Solid Primer On The Concept Marred By Typical Academic Left Leaning Myopia. Quite simply, at roughly 38% documentation across just a 225 page or so text, this is one of the better documented nonfiction books I've come across in quite some time. Indeed, at times it seemed like there were citations on every sentence or maybe just every other sentence, they were that prevalent. So a lot of kudos on that end, and it really helps make the case of what Prof. Warshawsky is showing here in describing how food banks began in different regions around the world and what their current realities are. Through these sections, the book is truly a great resource for seeing just how widespread the idea is now and the various challenges each particular country and region faces in providing these services.

 

Indeed, the only real flaw here - and yes, it was big enough that it warranted the star deduction - is the typical left leaning (vs outright leftist) myopia common in Academic circles. Over and over and over again, Warshawsky blames corporations as only sponsoring these efforts in order to burnish their own public images and condemns these efforts as stymying truly productive reforms, all without truly looking to a more holistic approach to those very reforms or even to this specific issue. Instead, while so much else of the text is so well documented, that government providing these services is better than private efforts is seen more as a fait accompli never to be questioned or even examined.

 

So read this text, it really is quite remarkable so far as it goes. But don't let its limitations limit your own imagination. There likely are better solutions to these issues out there - but assuming any one approach will work globally probably isn't going to work, for the very reasons Warshawsky illuminates here. Very much recommended.